Vania



Patented Aug. 22, 1916.

u. WEDGE.

I METALLURGICAL FURNACE.

APPLICATION FILEDJUNE 24. 1911- RENEWED JAN. 20. 1916.

N l ll\ INVENTOR UTLEV WEDGE BY HIS ATTORNEY WITNESSES as an in UTLEY WEDGE, OF ARDMORE, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO THE FURNACE PATENT COMPANY, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF PENNSYL- VANIA.

METALLURGICAL FURNACE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 22, 11916..

Application filed June 24, 1911, Serial No. 635,193. Renewed January 20, 1916. Serial No. 73,211..

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, UTLEY WEDGE, a citizen of the United, States, residing in Ardmore, Montgomery county, Pennsylvan a, have invented certain Improvements in Metallurgical Furnaces, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that class of metallurgical furnaces which have a series of superposed hearths over which the material under treatment is fed in succession, the material dropping from hearth to hearth throughout the series, and my inventlon relates especially to furnaces of this type which are heated by products of combust on derived from an outside source, the ob ect of my invention being to so construct such a furnace as to apply the heat more efiectively than usual, in the performance of certain metallurgical operations; I

In the accompanying drawing-F1gure 1 is a vertical sectional view of one type of furnace embodying my invention, and Fig.

2 is a similar view of another type of furnace to which my invention has been applied.

In treating granular or pulverized ores, or other materials in a mechanical furnace, it is sometimes advisable to make the initial application of heat to the material when it first enters the furnace but sometimes also to apply the highest degree of heat at that point, this being equally true of furnaces 1n which the heating gases come into direct contact with the material under treatment, or to furnaces of the muffle type in which the heating gases are circulated through chambers separate from those containing the material under treatment, the heat being applied to the latter indirectly, or through the walls which intervene between the treating chambers and the heating chambers.

My invention consists of a furnace devised for effecting this method of treatment.

In the drawings, 1 represents the outer wall of the furnace, 2 a series of superposed treating hearths having openings 3 through which the material may pass from hearth to hearth, from top to bottom of the furnace, the movement of the material being efiected by means of blades or rabbles carried by arms 4 projecting radially from the central rotating shaft 5. i

In the furnace shown in F1g. 1 the upper treating chambers are muflied, that is to say,

they are combined with heating chambers 6 which have no direct communication with the treatin chambers, the products of combustion being conveyed from one heating chamber to another through suitable side fiues 7 formed on or in .the walls of the furnace.

The furnace shown in Fig. 1 has five treating chambers and the three upper chambers are thus muflled. The products of combustion are introduced into the uppermost heating chamber of the series, pass from the same into the heating chamber below and from the latter into the heating chamber below it, from which the products of combustion escape into the treating chamber above the lowermost and pass from the latter into the lowermost chamber, from which they escape through an outlet flue 8. By this means the heat of the products of combustion is exerted with the greatest force in the uppermost treating chamber of the furnace and thence with lesser force in each of the other treating chambers in the descending series, the heat being mufiied in the three intermediate treating chambers and applied directly to the material in the tv lower chambers. If desired, however all the chambers may be mufiied, or, on the other hand, the products of combustion may directly enter each of the treating chambers of the furnace, as shown for instance, in Fig. 2, in which the products of combustion are directed in the first instance into the uppermost treating chamber and pass thence through fiues 9 from chamber to chamber in a descending series, or the products of combustion may pass downwardly from chamber to chamber through the same openings which serve for the passage of the material under treatment.

When the treating chambers are of the muffle type, the gases evolved from the material under treatment may either passdown= wardly through the furnace from chamber to chamber or may be permitted to pass upwardly through the furnace from chamber to chamber, as the character of the material and the treatment desired may suggest as the most appropriate.

In the furnace as shown in the drawing, the products of combustion are derived from oil burners 10 but, if desired, said products may arise from the combustion of fuel in any jacent to or relatively remote from the furnace in which the material is being treated and, if desired, the products of combustion may be admitted directly to two or more of the upper heating or treating chambers of the furnace, depending upon the heating effect desired.

I claim:

1. A metallurgical furnace having superposed treating hearths, means for feeding the material over said hearths in a descending series, heating chambers combined with a plurality of said treating chambers so as to convert the latter into muflies, and means for introducing products of combustion into an upper heating chamber and causing said products of combustion to flow through said heating chambers in a descending series.

2. The combination, in a metallurgical furnace, of a serie of superposed hearths, means for causing the material under treatment to pass over said hearths in a descending series, a heating chamber combined with an upper hearth so as to muffle the treating chamber above said hearth, and means for supplying products of combustion to said heating chamber and causing said products of combustion to pass downwardly from said heating chamber and into a treating chamher or chambers below the same.

3. A metallurgical furnace having superposed hearths and means for causing the material under treatment to pass over said hearths in a descending series, heating chambers combined with an upper series of hearths of the furnace sofasto muffle the treating chambers above said hearths, and means for supplying products of combustion to an upper heating chamber or chambers and causing said products of combustion to pass downwardly through a heating chamber or chambers below the same 4. A metallurgical furnace having superposed hearths and means for causing the material under treatment to pass over said hearths in a descending series, heating chambers combined with an upper series of hearths of the furnace so as to mufile the treating source, passages independent of those for the i descent of the material from hearth to hearth of the furnace, and means whereby the prodnets of combustion se arately supplied to the upper chamber of tide furnace are caused to pass from said uJpper chamber through said independent passages and in succession through chambers of the furnace below that to which the products of combustion are originally supplied.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

'UTLE'Y WEDGE.

Witnesses: I

R. M. MoCoNNELL, L. J. PETTETT. 

